Vidya Balan reveals Shilpa Shetty, Malaika Arora were her childhood neighbours: ‘Chembur has produced such hotties’

Vidya Balan has revealed that she goes a long way back with fellow Bollywood actors Shilpa Shetty and Malaika Arora. While Shilpa was her senior in school, Malaika was her neighbour in the Chembur locality where she spent her childhood. (Also Read: Neeyat box office collection Day 1: Vidya Balan thriller earns a dismal ₹1.02 crore)

Vidya Balan is a Tamilian who hails from Kerala, and she was born and brought up in Chembur, Mumbai. She married film producer Siddharth Roy Kapur in 2012 and then moved to Bandra.

Shilpa taught Vidya to dribble

In an interview with YouTube channel CurlyTales, Vidya said, “Shilpa was my senior by I think three years. She was always the hottie. She was also a basketball player. I remember one day, my mom decided I should play basketball. At 6 in the morning, I was set off to play basketball. And there were already murmurs that Shilpa might be joining the movies and stuff like that. And I remember she was so sweet. I’ll never forget she taught me how to dribble the ball. And I thought, ‘Abhi toh mujhe aa gaya sab kuchh’ (Now I’ve learnt everything there is). I told my mom, ‘Maine seekh liya. Kal se nahi jeena hai. Subah uth ke nahi jana hai’ (I’ve learnt everything. I don’t need to get up in the morning and go for it again).”

Malaika was also a ‘hottie’

“There was also Malaika Arora. She was from another school. But I remember she would walk down the lane at a particular time for her French tuitions, which were on my lane. And all the boys would be sitting out at that time, waiting for Malaika to pass. Just Chembur has produced too many hotties. What to do (laughs),” Vidya said in the same interview.

Vidya’s new film

Vidya’s latest film, Neeyat, is a murder mystery directed by Anu Menon, who previously collaborated with the actor for the biopic of Mathematics genius Shakuntala Devi. Neeyat sees Vidya play a detective and solve a high-profile murder at an isolated mansion in Agatha Christie-style. The film released on July 7 and opened to a little over ₹1 crore at the box office.